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Who knew … until last year:
Three African-American women working — in obscurity — for NASA as
mathematicians played a vital role in the mission that sent astronaut John
Glenn into orbit around Earth and brought him back again, in 1962.
Publication of Margot
Lee Shetterly's book Hidden Figures and the subsequent release of
the acclaimed 2016 film brought the story of the important roles played
by Katherine Johnson, Dorothy Vaughan, and Mary Jackson to light for the first time for many.
While their story may have been little known for decades, struggles
for opportunity and inclusion are familiar to many women and to members of under-represented minorities or other groups working to
make a career in a STEM (science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics) field. Findings on gender equity from the latest SPIE Optics and Photonics Global Salary report
indicate that women in the field lag behind men in salary and in representation
in management and senior academic positions.
The cost…

Authored by SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics, the Photonics for a Better World blog focuses on research news and the many ways technologies are applied to advance science and improve quality of life, and on the people who make that happen.